Website engagement is critical to the success of your website. Unfortunately, many people still do not realize why this engagement is so important and what happens in the absence of proper audience engagement.
Remember that website engagement is the first step to conversion. Engagement of the audience helps in determining the success as well as ranking of the website. Each website has a tough time competing with different rival brands, which helps in increasing the level of engagement. Even if there is huge traffic, it does not mean that users will be engaged or they will perform the needed action.
User engagement is the first step to convert. The audience has to be engaged before you can convince them to subscribe or buy products or services. Sometimes, users visit a website but just for a few seconds. This does impact the bounce rate negatively. Thus, user engagement is critical to the success of a website.
The good news is that there are a few ways which can help in keeping your audience engaged. Let us explore some of these effective ways.
Check the Internal Link Building Structure
A good linking structure helps in navigating the site easily. It helps in generating more page views with every increase in visitor and decrease of bounce rate. This is essential for user engagement. A website owner can also try some relevant anchor texts which are related to the content. However, it is important not to overdo the linking as it will annoy the users as well as search engines. In case, you have a content piece which is worth highlighting, you can also mention ‘Read Also or Recommended Links’. It will help not just in linking but will also add value to the content.
Ensure that it is a Responsive Design
It is known that 50% of the world population today, uses their phones to access. It is expected that this figure will increase in the next few years. It implies that building responsive websites is now a critical, keeping in mind the device the user is using. It can be a lot frustrating when a user navigates a website from a website and finds that it does not display clearly or is slow. It means that it prevents satisfactory user engagement. A fully responsive website is the way to keep the users engaged. Websites which are still not mobile friendly or do not have a responsive design, need to think about switching over to one.
Ensure That The Search Box is Prominent
There are several websites that get this aspect wrong. Users or visitors have to spend a lot of time looking for the search box. If your website is confused and confuses the user further, they will not wait or search further. Instead, they will leave. Thus, it is necessary that your visitors are engaged by helping them finding what they are looking for easily. You can add one search box which is in an easy to find location.
Usually websites have the search box right on top. Thus, most users expect the search box to have it located there. Thus, it is recommended to go simple with the search box. Add an auto-suggest feature or a drop-down menu. Thus, it is going to help in boosting the user engagement in a great way.
Collect Your Audience’s Email Address
When it is about user engagement, it is not about being engaged with a visitor just once. It means the ability to get visitors to the site. This is possible only when you can collect their email address. You can use the email address for sending content updates. A pop-up opt in form is quite helpful in collecting the email address. Another option is to have a subscription form in the sidebar.
Check the Page Load Time
How does it feel when you visit a website and it doesn’t load fast? A slow loading website is extremely harmful and turns away users. A website might look interesting but when after clicking a link, a user has to wait eternally, it tends to get a lot frustrating. Thus, website owners should keep checking the site loading time which will ensure that there is no trouble in user engagement.
Thus, it is recommended to go for a site speed test. This can be done using free tools to check how fast a site load. Images are a lot engaging but it is necessary to limit the images in a page. This will help in loading the page faster.
Thus, these were some of the many ways to increase the engagement of the website. In case your website is not bringing in conversions, check some of these aspects. It is surely going to bring a change.
